Your cancer treatment can be personalized. This canb be done by a test that looks for tumor DNA in the blood.

Data from the whole genome sequencing of cancer patients to develop individualized blood tests was used by a team at Johns Hopkins University. According to them it can help physicians tailor patients' treatments.

Scientists stated that these tests that are genome-based, may help scientists to check tumor levels post therapy and further determine cancer recurrence.

Lead scientist Victor Velculescu said, "We believe this is the first application of newer generations of whole genome sequencing that could be clinically useful for cancer patients. Using this approach we can develop biomarkers for potentially any cancer patient."

Scientists scanned genomes of patients for alterations. Large chunks of DNA’s rearrangements rather than changes in single DNA were seen. This approach is called Personalized Analysis of Rearranged Ends (PARE).

Velculescu added, "In sequencing individuals' genomes in the past, we focused on single-letter changes, but in this study, we looked for the swapping of entire sections of the tumor genome."